Guard transitions into Eagles’ leading scorer Not to take anything away from Charles Hinkle, but for too long he’s been trying not to take anything away from his teammates.
In high school, he deferred to a future NBA player, even if it cost him the initial chance at a Division-I scholarship.
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When he finally ended up at the highest level in college, he got injured and ceded minutes to a pair of potential first-round NBA draft picks.
| Moving out to D.C. |
| It’s been five years since 23-year-old Charles Hinkle left the greater Los Angeles area to pursue his basketball dream. Just in time for his breakout senior season at American, his father has joined him. Terry Hinkle, a high school track star, was laid off from his job with San Diego Gas & Electric in July. An engineer by trade, he landed on his feet with a job at the Goddard Space Center in Beltsville, and he currently works on the GOES-R satellite. He’s also been to every American home game. “This year is something that’s been really exciting, and I’m here to see to it,” Terry Hinkle said. “I literally didn’t think it was going to happen.” |
| – Craig Stouffer |
And even after transferring to American, he was happy to wait his turn.
But there’s no longer anyone in front of him. In fact, when it comes to scoring points, nearly everyone in the country is behind Hinkle, who was fifth in the nation heading into the weekend, averaging 23.5 points a game. He hadn’t scored anywhere near that his entire career.
But when fellow senior Troy Brewer suffered a turf toe injury at the end of preseason, Hinkle went from an offensive option to a dominant scorer. He’s helped transform the rebuilding Eagles into a Patriot League contender with sights set on another NCAA tournament.
“We knew coming into the year that we would need him to be more assertive,” Eagles coach Jeff Jones said. “But particularly because of Troy’s injury, we had a void, and he’s filled that void. It’s not like we’ve had to push him kicking and screaming. I think it’s been a fairly smooth transition.”
That may be the case for the Eagles. But Hinkle was the one left empty-handed despite helping lead Los Alamitos High to its first California Interscholastic Federation sectional championship in 2006. He was overshadowed by teammate Landry Fields, who went on to star at Stanford and was an all-NBA rookie first-team selection last year with the New York Knicks.
“My role wasn’t scoring,” Hinkle said. “It was to guard and defend people so that’s what I really focused on. We were trying to win a championship, and that’s what I needed to do in order for us to win, and that’s what we did. We won.”
Terry Hinkle, Charles’ father, said: “At the time, there was always, ‘Charles, play behind Landry,’ But I had faith that Charles could play, but he had to get out of that zone of Landry and develop his own character, and that’s where he’s been.”
Without a scholarship, Charles first went cross-country to Hebron Academy in Maine, where a 16-point average finally put him on the Division-I radar.
But a broken foot that forced him to redshirt his freshman season at Vanderbilt also didn’t help his case to win playing time over John Jenkins and Jeffery Taylor, who are both projected as potential NBA Draft first-round picks in 2012.
American, which had recruited him out of Hebron, lured him to Washington as a transfer, but Vlad Moldoveanu had gotten there first from George Mason, and he averaged more than 20 points per game. While it left few minutes for Hinkle, Moldoveanu’s backup, it didn’t diminish Jones’ hopes or expectations.
In 2007-08, Jones had helped Garrison Carr go from seldom-used backup to averaging 18 points a game as the Eagles won consecutive Patriot League titles. He undertook the same task with Hinkle, and things began to sink in during a team trip in August to the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary.
“We had a little — not an argument, he just kind of yelled at me and told me he wanted me to try and produce. Be more aggressive. Be more assertive,” Hinkle said. “At the time, I was trying to pass the ball around and get everybody else involved. But I guess he wanted to see me do it a little bit more, see what I could do.”
Jones said: “He’s not a playmaker. He’s a guy that puts the ball in the basket. That’s what he does. When he tries to make plays, and in particular if he tries to start doing a lot off the dribble, he’s setting himself up to fail. There’s been times when I’ve yelled, ‘Shoot the ball,’ which normally is something that players would love to hear.”
It’s almost as hard to believe as Hinkle’s rise itself. Last week, even a pair of Wizards scouts came to Bender Arena to see the sharpshooter. He hit five 3-pointers in an upset of St. Joseph’s.
But Hinkle insists he’s the same guy he’s always been, and he’s fine with it taking longer than he expected.
“It’s something, you know. I’ve truly been blessed this year,” he said. “I’m just trying to keep my head down, do what I’m supposed to do and try to perform.”
